Javaline

I’m a mommy blogger. This is my boy and his present he made me. And I’m blogging about it because I like it. The blogging, the boy, the present, and everything about it. So there.

If you’re a mom and visit here, Happy Mother’s Day to you!

There is something strange going on with my blog stats. For some reason this post  has a lot of hits. And I didn’t even say anything in it, really.

Why are people so obsessed about laundry? I know we’re all drowning in it, but really, isn’t there anything more important to read about in the blogosphere than laundry?

I know you and I could both be doing laundry right now. This minute. Because the laundry is never done. But we are not doing laundry, are we. We are sitting here in front of the laptop reading and typing words, about laundry no less.

It is quite astonishing,

All I wanted to do was mow the lawn.

It’s a simple thing, really. Get the lawnmower out, turn it on, mow the lawn, put the lawnmower back, done.

Right?

Riiiigghhhttt….here is what really happened:

First, I had to FIND the lawnmower. I knew it was somewhere in our little garage (built in 1950-something, and looks more like a shed). Because of the basement renos, the contents of the basement were piled in the garage, which made finding anything in there challenging. And depressing.

So I had to clear out all the crap that was blocking the damn thing, which increased my pissedoffness, because really, how much of this stuff do we need? It was depressing too because I knew that once the stuff was out, I would have to fit it all back in, preferably in a different order since we don’t need the snow shovesl any longer, but the bike trailer and ladder and gardening tools. This too increased my pissedoffness.

But to make a long rant short, I now have a handwritten sign on my front lawn that says

Free Stuff

Take it

I hope someone does take it. If not, it’ll end up in the garbage truck on Wednesday. Or at Goodwill if I have time to drive there before then.

So anyway, I was talking about the lawnmower. Once I found the lawnmower, several things happened.

First, the baby woke up. She has impeccable timing, that one.

Then, the lawnmower wouldn’t start. It had gas in it still, but I thought maybe it was no good anymore given that the lawnmower hasn’t been used since October of last year. So I went to pour more gas from the handly little red container, which of course was empty.

The 3yo kept saying things like “when will we turn the lawnmower oooonnnn????” and “does it make nooooiiissseee???” and ” why doesn’t it make noooiiissseee?”. Incessantly.

Didn’t make the baby feel particularly relaxed either.

When DH finally came home, 2 hours after he said he would be home, he looked at the lawnmower. Turns out the sparks plug is rusted.

Great.

As far as I’m concerned, the grass (weeds) can keep growing. I have no idea when anyone will have time to fix the lawnmore, get gas and oil for it, and do the actual work. 

That was my afternoon yesterday in a nutshell.

I am on a painting rampage!

I’m painting hallways, trim, doors, this, that and the other. Almost done!

I also have 6 loads of clean laundry to fold and put away. But lucky for me I have

a) dumped it on the bed DH is currently sleeping on since I have Miss Cranky Pants with me in bed half the night, which means he can’t go to sleep till he does something with the pile, and

b) my hands are full of paint so I can’t help out in that department.

Ha!

The baby’s frozen chicken portions are finished.

She’s been eating beef.

DH is back, and he brought home some bbq sauce from Calgary. Might as well have chicken for dinner tonight! I’m currently freezing new chicken for the baby as I type this.

My vegetarian challenge went without a hitch. I really had no trouble not eating meat for 3 days. In fact, it’s the sugar that I think I should challenge myself with next time. I’ve been eating sweets both in the late mornings and most afternoons, and really, whatever positive effect I was going for in terms of how I was feeling with all those vegetables probably negated with the sugar I consumed.

But I did eat some neat stuff I cooked. Stuff I could easily eat again on meatless days, or even as sides.

So, until my next food-induced challenge…thank you for reading.

Well, I don’t seem to be missing the meat at all. I don’t crave it, I don’t miss it, and frankly, I haven’t had much time think about my self-imposed diet. Single-mommying it for 3 days with a preschooler and infant has been busy beyond busy. But I’m sure glad I did the bulk of my shopping prior to Sunday.

So here’s what I’ve been eating:

For breakfast I’ve been cooking oatmeal. It seemed appropriate since firstly, the crappy weather has returned and having a warm bowl of oatmeal (not the instant or processed packs) really got my day started well. The baby likes it too when mixed with banana and some other fruit.

After the second (or third) cup of coffee, sometime during mid-morning, I eat some yoghurt with granola or muesli, or some Kashi with milk. Seems to tie me over all right to lunch.

For lunch I eat a variety of things. I have a big bowl of lentil soup I made on Saturday, unfortunately with homemade chicken stock, but not with chicken pieces in it. I guess that’s kind of cheating. I did buy some vegetarian organic broth, and ended up using it in my risotto.

I’ve also been eating whole grain bread slices with various cheeses. DH doesn’t like Stilton or blue cheeses, and I do, so I’ve been indulging a bit. Had some green grapes to go with that…yum.

I’m also eating things like cheese cake (President’s Choice blueberry) or my home-made toffee which is rather addictive, both which are made with either eggs or butter. I guess I’m not a very strict vegetarian.

And I’ve been grilling veggies on the BBQ and wrapping them in whole wheat flour tortillas. I LOVE those! Will have to make it again.

For supper? I don’t miss the meats we usually have, not really. I made a lovely cremini-and-swiss-chard risotto for one night, with parmesan cheese and white wine in it, which turned out lovely.

I also made an awesome, if I say so myself, vegetarian tomato sauce for pasta tonight. Caramelized cremini mushrooms, red onion, green onion, swiss chard and about 5 cloves of garlic with sea salt and maple syrup in the oven on high heat, added a can of tomatos, and baked it with a lid on for 2 hours. It turned out absolutely scrumptious. Have enough left over for lunch for tomorrow. Will definitely make THAT again.

Perhaps when DH is back, I can jot down some recipe instructions, in case anyone is interested.

So…one day down, two more to go.

The actual challenge beings Sunday April 27.

Several questions, and some excuses, come to mind while I ponder my vegetarian days ahead. I do have to keep in mind that I have babies to feed. And I have to decide how strict a vegetarian I will be. For example, will I allow myself to eat butter? Eggs? What about cheese? I grew up in Switzerland where cheese (and chocolate) was a daily staple, so switching to imitation cheese, or even tofu, isn’t really part of my plan. Besides, making my spinach-mushroom risotto without cheese would just not do. So I will probably try to eat pretty much everything I eat now, and just leave the actual meat out of my diet.

Will my 3yo join me in the challenge of eating vegetarian? He likes eggs, so that will be at least one quick dinner on a night when I may or may not be at my wit’s end. He likes lentils, and raw veggies like peppers, tomatos and cucumbers. He likes pasta, and cheese…and so do I. Maybe this will work…

Perhaps I can try out a few new veggies. Maybe a type of squash I’ve never had. I do want to try and stay within the “local/fresh” kick that seems to have everyone in a tizzy these days, which shouldn’t be too difficult really, but then again, I don’t want to eat cardboard tomatos from Canada’s greenhouses all day either.

I have decided that the baby will continue getting her meat portions, conveniently tucked into the freezer in the shape of ice cubes. 6 month olds shouldn’t be subjected to my folly.

And what about visitors? Will they expect me to hand them a burger? Guess only time will tell.

I wonder too about fish. I make these cool salmon rolls with smoked salmon. Will I allow myself to eat fish? 

What about stock? My vegan cookbook states that for soup you should use your own, home-made vegetable stock. I guess I could make some…I made plenty of chicken stock recently and wonder if that would be cheating if using it, rather than a store-bought version. I definitely want to have at least one pot of soup available for my never-ending, insatiable appetite. Will have to revisit the stock issue.

And then there is dessert. I may have to make another batch of this to tie me over the meatlessness next week. Which would make the reduced calorie intake moot, really. But it was sooooo gooooood, and soooooo addictive… (thanks Andrea!)

So it all begins tomorrow. DH is leaving in the early afternoon. I don’t typically need or eat meat for breakfast, so that won’t be a problem. We had a lovely steak dinner tonight, steak from our butcher on the Queensway who gets his grass-fed, pasture cows from a local farm not far from here. It was lovely…

We’ll see how it goes.

BPA, or Bisphenol A is the new (old) dirty word. It’s in the plastic bottles, sippy cups, and other baby stuff. Our 3yo still enjoys his milk in a baby bottle (yes, I admit it) so after I packed up all the plastic yesterday and announced that he will have to drink his milk from a cup from now on, he was sad. Actually decided he could do without the milk completely.

Not what I had in mind. We may purchase him a glass milk bottle…we’ll see. The baby is using the Evenflo glass bottles, but she can’t hold them herself yet, so I don’t worry about breakage yet.

Anyway, I’m not a fan of plastic anything (toys, household items), we haven’t really accumulated much of it. I have to say though that certain plastic holds their place in our lifestyle. I mean, I’m glad when rain is imminent and I haven’t had time to clean up the yard that his huge plastic trucks won’t know the difference between being put away and left out in the dirt.

With regards to the milk in the bottle, this morning, he accepted warm milk in a cup. He didn’t drink much of it, so I offered to add a bit of organic, fair trade, dark chocolate powder to his cup. He did drink half of it….

Funny thing is, he drinks milk from a cup at Montessori…so what the heck?

The actual challenge beings Sunday April 27.

I am obsessed about the fact that by Sunday, I will not be serving myself meat. All I can think about is steak. And chicken. On the bbq. It is bbq season.

Sunday is several days away. The challenge begins Sunday. That is three days away. And I have a slew of emotions already taking over my life:

anxiety (will I be hungry?)
stress (how hungry will I be?)
anticipation (yummy new recipes to try!)
fatigue (from all the anxiety about hunger)
irritation (why do I cause myself anxiety?)
hope (to succeed, and feel better, and make it to the end)
 
Ironically, there is very little meat in the house right now. If I want to load up before the challenge, perhaps I need to go shopping at some point.

But I also have very little vegetable-like food in the house. There’s plenty of pasta, some lentils, green lettuce, and little else. Not even potatos, or a squash…

So here is my opportunity to plan a shopping trip to purchase things I can toss into pasta, like snow peas, or mushrooms. And I have plans to make at least one risotto, my favorite one with spinach and mushrooms. Hubby doesn’t like risottos…Weather permitting I’ll probably make at least one big pot of hearty soup, or two. I can always freeze it. In fact, I may even begin making some soup before Sunday, just in case the anklebiters won’t let me cook in peace.

But I keep thinking about steak…

Maybe this will be harder than I anticipated. But I’m still up for it.

note: the original post which was published on Wed April 23 has forever disappeared into cyberspace. The first comment, by Dan White, followed the post into oblivion. (Thank you Dan for your words of encouragement.) So here is another attempt at reciting my lost post from memory.

Yesterday, as I was chopping bacon for my baked bean dish, I considered becoming a vegetarian for a few days. I actually don’t have any intentions of becoming a permanent vegetarian, mainly because I enjoy a variety of food, including meat. My family’s focus is to eat whole foods, local, and organic when possible. We also strive to purchase our meat from a local butcher who obtains his meat from trusted sources where animals are humanely treated, grass and pasture fed, and free range in the true sense of the word.

Great reads that enforce, explain and detail this type of food choice can be read by authors like Michael Pollan here and here, and by Barbara Kingsolver here. 

I have a variety of reasons for wanting to challenge myself to go meatless for a few days. This idea however has to take place when DH is out of town, aptly happening this coming Sunday for several days. Although he, and the rest of the family, like vegetables of all kinds, he meets my suggestions to forgo meat for a few days with an eyeroll.

So  Sunday I begin my challenge. Here are my reasons why:

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